I've been surrounded by talk of angel investors, venture capital, and investment rounds. Just today I watched this great video of Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko discussing the launch of their new venture firm, Floodgate. They have a successful track record in venture capital. They like to find "Thunder Lizards" with founders that are authentic and think against conventional wisdom. Think Godzilla stomping everything in its path and taking over the city. And the plan to "Open the Floodgates" and let these monsters break loose into our economy. I encourage you to watch the video. Its has some great info about the angel thought process.
Just check out all this stuff happening close to home here in Virginia's New River Valley:
- April 7 - 8 Virginia Tech KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneaurship Summit (hint: there's a video) which is a workshop for entrepreneurs launching or re-vamping a
business, growing companies seeking expansion capital,
and individuals interested in investing in early-stage
companies. There's a Student Business Concept Competition and an Open Business Concept Competition and a slew of sessions on angel funding. There's even more info about the summit on the VTKnowledgeworks Blog including a list of the competition finalists.
- DayOneVentures has been launched as an invitation-only seed stage investment and mentoring program for technology-based startups, funded and operated by experienced, successful entrepreneurs who are also angel investors.
- I've learned of NewVa Capital Partners and their $2.5 million investment in Keraderm.
Our company, FurnishWEB, is self-funded and we're getting along pretty well. Could be better ... but could be a lot worse. Is all this talk a sign and I need to take notice? Or, maybe the more likely explanation is that the technology community in Virginia's New River Valley is maturing? Or, could it be that the economy is turning around and investors out there are looking for a great return with a great company in our area? Well ... I think its all three! I've been following Anne Clelland's HandShake2.0 blog on this topics and seen elements of maturation, economic turn-around, and she always has messages or signs for me.
For now, I'm anticipating big things in SW Virginia. I know several little salamanders that I know could be "Thunder Lizards" .... soon?
